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Tithe: a Modern Faerie Tale | Holly Black

Rating:

Faye has always felt different. Being asian and blonde already set her apart, but throughout her childhood she has friends no one can see and experiences no one can understand. But her friends aren’t imaginary–they’re faeries.

When Faye suddenly has to move back from Philadelphia to her hometown, she feels alone. Though she tries to contact her old childhood friends, she gets no response, and believes they’ve abandoned or forgotten her. So instead she tries to reconnect with old best friend, Janet. Sadly, her first night out proves to be disastrous.

In an old abandoner warehouse, they meet up with the crew. Kaye, feeling uncomfortable, takes off to explore. On an upper floor she finds an old carousel horse. Its legs are missing, but she loves it just the same. When she props it up to ride, Janet’s boyfriend Kenny spots her. He says he saw it stand up.

When he moves from questions to hitting on her, Faye takes off. Walking home through the rain, she hears a noise in some woods off the road. It sounds like someone in pain, so she heads off to investigate. What she finds is a man with a branch through his chest. In actuality, he’s a gentry faery, who’s been shot with an arrow. Though he is suspicious of her, she manages to help him pull the arrow out, then, following his instructions, calls a Kelpie to aid him on his journey back home. He becomes all she thinks about.

The next day she receives a message in an acorn from her old friends, telling her to stay away from the Dark Knight, and that they need to see her. That night, they come to her room, and take her to see the Thistlewitch. While they explain to her that they need her help, the truth of her strangeness is finally revealed. She isn’t an odd human at all—she’s a pixie.

Of course, being a curious teenager at heart, Faye does exactly what her friends recommend against, and removes the glamour that’s been passing her off for human her whole life. The new sights and sounds, smells and taste, the green skin, are all too much for her. She turns to Janet’s brother Corny, who helps her to remove the rest of her glamour, and then to try to research the new things she’s leard of. The Unseelie Court, pixies, the Tithe. None of it bodes well. And as they seek to learn more, things only become more entangled.

Again, Black’s blend of fantasy and reality remind me of Francesca Lia Block. A powerful style, a compelling story.

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The Tithe: a Modern Faerie Tale | Holly Black by Jaemi, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 3:04 pm by Jaemi and is filed under Book Review, Staff Favorites. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: faeries, fantasy, holly black, magic, ya fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.